SERVANT LEADERSHIP - The Blue Letter Bible Institute

Servant Leadership – Lesson 26 4
Encouragement for the Troubled Heart by Greg Laurie
Peter says, “Listen, I have gone through these sufferings, through these difficulties, and now I
want to help you.” Paul said pretty much the same thing in 2 Corinthians. All that he had gone
through was so that he might comfort others as he had been comforted (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:4–5).
When I first started out preaching I had everything figured out. I was twenty years old and I
thought I had all the answers. I mean, whatever your problem was I had a quick biblical response
for you. “You need to do this. Here is the answer. Why aren’t you doing it?” You should have
come to me when I was twenty. I could have answered any question you would have had. Well, I
am going to be fifty this December and I do not feel quite that way anymore because I have been
through a few things. I have experienced a few things. Now when I look at people and the
problems they are facing, I realize that God wants me to comfort them with the comfort that I
have been comforted with. When you have gone through a hardship you can minister in a way
that you could not have ministered prior to that. When you have gone through a difficulty, you
can say, “I know what you are going through. I do not have a quick and easy answer but I care. I
am listening. And let me just be here with you.”
When counseling people I have discovered that sometimes one of the best things you can do is
just be there. This is especially true when a loved one has experienced—the death of a friend, a
spouse, or a child. I have discovered that they do not need quick and easy answers. They need
someone who will just be there with them, love them, and go through it with them. We must
weep with those that weep, as the Bible says. That is not to say there is not a place for the truth of
the Word of God, for indeed there is. But we want to ask the Lord to give us wisdom so that we
do not just rattle off clichés, but that we think about it and pray for the right words at the right
time. Scripture says, “A word that is fitly spoken is like an apple of gold in a frame of silver”
(Proverbs 25:11).
Here we see that Peter was going to go through hardship and he was going to be able to help
others as the result of what he had gone through.
Satan was targeting Peter because he was being groomed to be a leader in the church. And that is
why Satan is targeting you. It was Spurgeon who used to say, “You don’t kick a dead horse.” And
if a person is just sitting around idly, making no difference for the kingdom of God, I suppose the
devil does not really need to do all that much in their lives because they are basically where he
wants them to be—immobilized and ineffective. But when a man or a woman is saying: “I want
to make a difference for the kingdom. Let’s reach our community. Let’s reach this place. Let’s
just do something for God’s glory,” you better know that the devil is going to attack you. Just as
surely as Nehemiah said, “Let’s rise up and build,” there was Sanballat who said, “Let’s rise up
and oppose.” Whenever you take a bold step forward, you better brace yourself and prepare for
opposition. It is not a matter of if; it is only a matter of when and how it is going to come.
The devil wanted to bring down Peter. Unfortunately Peter fell into his trap. He was filled with
self-confidence. “Though all deny You, I will never deny You,” he said to the Lord. In Matthew’s
Gospel he said, “Even if all are made to stumble, I will never be made to stumble” (Matthew
26:33). Now what caused Peter to say this was the revelation that Judas was a traitor. Peter
essentially was saying, “Look, even if Judas lets You down, Lord, You can depend on me. Do not
forget that my nickname is ‘Rock.’ I am going to live up to it, Lord. I am going to be here for
You. You can count on me.”
You know I think it is always a mistake to boast of how much we love Jesus. I think it is a far
better thing to boast of how much He loves me because my love is fickle, as is yours. Peter was